Electric shavers for use in personal hygiene applications generally comprise a rotary or reciprocating drive shaft that drives a movable cutting member against a stationary screen. A spring or other biasing mechanism biases the cutting member against the inner surface of the screen, forcing the cutting member into engagement with the screen. The relative motion of the cutting member against the stationary screen acts as a shear plane, cutting the hair as it is received through several slots or openings formed on the screen. After repeated use, the cutting edges and surfaces of the electric shaver become dull. When this occurs, the efficacy of the electric shaver to obtain a close shave consequently decreases.
Numerous sharpening processes have been proposed as an alternative to replacement of the cutting member and screen. Such processes generally include providing a honing surface such as a disc or plate that can be rotatably engaged against the cutting edges of the movable cutting member. In one such process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,689 to Voll, an apparatus for sharpening a rotary shaver includes a sharpening disc having an abrasive surface that can be brought into contact with the cutting edges of the movable cutting member. Insertion of the sharpening disc requires the operator to manually disassemble the shaver housing prior to sharpening the cutting edges with the disc. Since the sharpening disc sharpens only the cutting edges of the movable cutting member and not the cutting surface formed by the stationary screen, replacement of the screen may still be required to return the electric shaver to its original working condition.